The Tiwanaku civilization, centered at the site of Tiwanaku near Lake Titicaca in the Bolivian altiplano (highlands), was one of the first expansive state societies in the New World.

Between AD 600 and AD1000, Tiwanaku settlers colonized the Moquegua Valley in southern Peru. The Tiwanaku colonists settled primarily at four large site groups in Moquegua. I have directed survey and excavation projects at the three largest of these: Omo, Chen Chen, and Rio Muerto.

These within-site studies support the Tiwanaku affiliation of these diasporic enclaves. Excavations of domestic contexts at Omo, Chen Chen, and Rio Muerto found Tiwanaku colonial homes built of organic materials, utilizing either a tent-like skeletal structure of thin posts or "quincha" structures with wattle and daub walls built of river cane.

Artifact assemblages and features indicate that household productive, consumptive, and ritual activities were consistent with highland Tiwanaku traditions.